Strings Attached
by Niki
Summary: After Zach saves Kendall from a deadly fire they find themselves compromised when things get heated.
1. Chapter 1

_Strings Attached_

**Chapter One**

She awoke with a slight headache. Sliding back against the headboard she offered a sigh to the darkness that seemed to be listening only to her. From her place on the bed she could see that the moon was still out in all of its pale glory.

She had promised herself with Ryan that she would never again go back down into that hole of emotions that threatened to overtake her. Then she'd met Michael Cambias, and look at what a mess he'd made of her heart. He'd raped her sister, gotten her pregnant, and then Bianca had killed him. Then just when she'd thought the nightmare would end there she met his nephew, Ethan Ramsey. Oh, she'd fallen in love with him alright, but Ethan as of late had become obsessed with destroying the father he and everyone else had thought dead.

She sighed again, and this time got up and went into the kitchen of her small condo. She and Ethan up until a few hours ago, had been living together. She'd kicked him out when he'd discussed his newest plan to sock it to Zack Slater, a.k.a. Alex Cambias Jr. They had argued, ending with him leaving in a furry, and she telling him to never darken her damn doorway again.

She set the tea kettle on the stove and then went to stand out on the porch. The chilly fall air stung her skin only slightly but she didn't really care. For a few hours after Ethan's departure she'd actually cried for her tragic relationship mishaps. All she wanted was to surrender to her heart to Ethan, but after getting to really know him she was very happy to know that she hadn't fully loved him. That small part of her that acted as her conscience and guided her had not allowed Ethan to fully see all of her.

Looking across the walk way to where Zach Slater lived, she saw that the lights were on in his own condo. It had at one point been Michael's, but for some odd reason he felt he needed to be close to the monster.

She once again sighed at the thought of Michael Cambias. He had destroyed Bianca's psyche, but out of his hatred had been born Miranda, Kendall and Zack's shared niece.

She took a small shy step, about to go knock on Zach's door, and ask him just what in the hell did he expect to accomplish by living in his terror of a brother's house, when the door opened. Kendall's mouth fell slightly ajar when Maria Santos Grey exited with tears in her eyes. She quickly ran down the walk way towards the parking lot and that's when Kendall saw Zach. Her blue eyes collided with his weary hazel.

"Spying?" He asked, and actually seemed amused by the thought.

"Never!" She said outraged that that would be his first thought, although she was intrigued by why the supposedly grieving widow of a Pine Valley socialite was running to him in the middle of the night.

"Well then, what are you out here for?"

She huffed, and her breath made little clouds in the cold night air making her realize just how much the temperature had dropped. "I was going to ask why you were up so late but obviously you were preoccupied." She turned to leave but he grabbed her arm.

As she turned back to him, he saw that his mouth was set in a firm attractive smirk. "Don't go giving your mother something to tell the town about. Maria was just telling me she's moving to California."

"Really? Or are you sure it wasn't just an after hours booty call?"

He released her arm as if she'd just slapped him. "You should now. You have so many men in that apartment of yours its hard to keep track of who's who."

"Don't get defensive. Look it cold, wanna have tea?" She was prepared to let the last statement slip since she'd apparently started the whole thing.

"Um…," he hesitated.

"Its just tea," she heard the kettle screaming behind her as she reassured him.

"Okay, just let me turn off the lights in my condo." For a second he watched as Kendall retreated back inside of her house and then locked up his as he pocketed his house key, and a few minutes later joined her.

Kendall sat down with the tea, and drank before she started talking again. She thought about Maria, and how she'd just seen the woman running from Zach in tears. She wondered should she to be afraid of Zach.

"So I hear you and my son split up," he smiled at his comment.

"Um…yes. Me and Ethan didn't see eye to eye on something. So he's gone, for good this time." Kendall set the tea cup in the saucer.

"Sorry to hear that. So what were you to arguing about?" He didn't even have the nerve to be embarrassed at asking, making Kendall frown.

"You're an inquisitive one." For some reason she had the idea to take a rolled up news paper and smack him on his nose. She smiled at the thought. "It was about you. Once again a Cambias interferes with my love life."

"Doesn't most of your love life revolve around Cambias mean anyway?" Zach asked on purpose getting a nice glare from Kendall that slightly marred her pretty face.

"Oh yeah, let's bring up how much this community hates you and your dead brother," Kendall stormed. She was not in the mood to be pushed around by him or anyone else.

"I'm so happy you take Michael's death as lightly as you do," he snorted in discuss.

"I hate you! All of you Cambias men!" She snarled lightly.

"I'm so sorry to hear that," Once again she was amusing him. Coolly he ignored the way that she was throwing daggers at him. He could care less what Kendall's opinion of him was, she was just his neighbor, and a name he could add to a list about a mile long. "So tell me exactly why you and my son were arguing. Maybe I could remedy the situation."

She poured them each another cup.

"Well, Ethan got a call earlier this morning. It was Binks calling ask if she could ask the biggest favor on Earth. This was to ask for your help on some upcoming project at Cambias in Paris. Ethan told her of course that his answer was no. He didn't want you involved in any aspect of Cambias Enterprises. Something about you trying to take the company away. So then he came up with this glorious plan to get your casinos shut down. We argued forever, as I'm sure your aware of. That was just the last straw." Kendall sighed.

Zach was thoughtful for a few moments. "So Ethan would try to shut down my casinos?"

"Yes." Kendall shook her head, and then sipped her tea. In her opinion he was acting quite calm. She knew how much his casinos meant to him.

"Well, I'll just have to talk to him about that, won't I?" He eased up off of the couch, and went into her kitchen. For the first time Kendall actually allowed herself to see Zach as a human being and not just Michael Cambias' older brother. And what she saw, she liked. He wore a black tank top that showed off his upper and very muscular body, and a pair of expensive black dress pants.

In her head she could see herself in bed with him, but stopped the perverse thought there. Zach was just her type, the type that put her back in dating hell. Back into that nightmare.

She heard him washing his tea cup and placing it back in the cabinet.

"Thanks for the tea," Zach smiled slightly as she stood. She realized looking past him that dawn was breaking outside, and that she must look frightening to him this time of morning.

"Your welcome. Anytime you can't sleep, and Maria's not over, you can come to me and talk." She offered him what was suppose to be a friendly smile but it was very hard, especially when she was suppose to hate him.

"And the same goes for you. When you can't sleep, and Ethan's just something incredible stupid." He returned her smile as she came closer. "Goodnight."

"Yeah. Goodnight."

Some how neither of them seemed to be moving at the moment. Time had slipped into a vortex and somewhere it seemed to Kendall that she was slowly being pulled in to. Zach stepped toward her and the bent his head and brushed over her lips. It wasn't really a kiss but it held all the promise of one.

"Thanks for the tea, and again good night." He left then, and she closed the door behind him. The light touch of lips made her slightly annoyed and a little bit curious. She almost thought that Zach had done it because he wanted to, but then common sense overrode that thought and she knew it was because he thought he had some sort of power over her.

"Well you don't, Zach!" Kendall opened up her door and hollered out, probable rousing other neighbors. "You or your son had better not step foot on my door again!" She slammed the door feeling satisfied with herself.

Author's note: This is my first attempt at a Kendall and Zack romance. I hope you'll enjoy it.


	2. Chapter 2

_Strings Attached_

**Chapter Two**

Once morning had broken, and she had forgotten about Zach's slight kiss, Kendall had made her way into her bathroom and showered. Then she'd gotten dressed and headed over to Fusion.

When she'd first entered the door she spotted Ethan. He was seated at Greenlee's desk scanning over some reports that apparently needed his attention and his signature because he was signing some of them.

Ignoring people was her strong suit when she need it to be. Briskly she walked into the office and went straight to her desk. Dropping her purse she sifted through some lipstick colors that she had been avoiding as of late.

She could feel his gaze on her. It burned her skin, and made her fuzzy in the head.

_Stop it !_, Kendall thought. _Until he can stop trying to punish Zach, we cannot be together._

She moved to the other side of the office and began to make copies of memos that were going to got to other Fusion employees. Sensing that Ethan was behind her, even when she hadn't heard him she scowled. "Nothing has changed."

"Why do you insist on making this harder on yourself?" He asked as he nuzzled her neck. She moved away form him and gathered her copies.

"Make this hard on me. You're the one who insist on punishing your daddy because he won't love you." The look that crossed Ethan's face was one of disgust. He didn't like when Kendall made it all his fault and non of Zach's.

"Kendall, please-"

"Please what?" Her eyes flashed blue sparks. "Please don't mention Zach Slater. Don't justify your father to you." She sneered at him, feeling very void of any emotion for him.

"My father is going to regret every evil thing he's ever done," Ethan followed close behind.

"See, your so blinded by Zach, you can't see straight. You use to be a wonderful person before this whole mess with your father. I'm not saying that everything Zach did was right. Some of it was down right wrong. But that's not the type of person you are. You aren't vengeful." She shook her head, seeing that none of her words were making it clear enough.

"This morning I had Zach's casinos shut down. Both the Season East and West."

"God, Ethan, what has happened to you," Kendall backed slowly away from him and then turned bumping into Simone. She didn't recognize this man anymore. He had Ethan's face, and his body, but all the traces of the Ethan she'd known were gone. Evaporated as if they had never existed in the first place.

"Hey, watch where your going!" Simone cried as she moved around Kendall.

"Sorry," Kendall murmured. "I didn't see you."

Once she was in the parking lot of Fusion, the lights came on upstairs, and she could breath. She realized that she had been holding her breath. After a few deep minding calming, reassuring gulps of air she got in her car and drove home.

Although she and Greenlee had planned to work on a few things today she decided that it was better to get out of that air before Ethan sucked the life out of her. She wouldn't let him do that to her. Driving through the gates to her condo she saw Zack getting out of his SUV. A scowl had planted itself on his face. Appreciatively, Kendall's eyes roamed over his body, and then she scolded herself.

"Hey," she said after parking beside him and getting out.

He muttured something incoherent to her ears. She rolled her eyes thinking that it was just typical Zach until she remembered Ethan's words about closing down the casinos.

"So I guess you know about your casinos," she mumbled.

"Yeah. I just got a call from the gaming comissioner." He was weary as they trudged up the small hill to their respective condos. The way he moved spelled tired, fatigued.

"I'm sorry," Kendall said in a small voice. Zach gave her a look of disbelief. She smiled then, "Hey I can be nice. I know what your casinos meant to you."

"Thanks." He went to unlock his condo doors when Kendall mumbled something he didn't quite here. "Hum?" He asked.

She turned, with the key to her condo on the verge of letting her enter. "I said this doesn't mean were friends or anything."

This amused him. "Oh, of course not." He smile, then entered his own respective house.

Kendall rolled her eyes, throwing her purse down on a side table. She entered her small kitchen and grabbed a banana. Peeling it she checked her messages. There was only one, and it was from Bianca.

"Kendall, it me Bianca. Just wanted to call and check on you. I know I upset Ethan, but I hope I didn't mess things up between the two of you. Still, even though Ethan isn't on board with this project, I want Zach to help with it. I'll call later with more details. Maggie says hi, Miranda says she loves you, and I love you to." The recording ended.

She sighed and relaxed into her couch. Thoughts of last night spun into her head. They were all about Zach, and then she cided herself. She had a small, barely there crush on Zach Slater.

She knew it wouldn't amount to anything. Why? Because he wanted the one and only Widow Grey. Everyone knew that Zach was deeply in love with her. He had found her out in the desert, and had fallen madly in love with her. She sighed, thinking that it was nice to be in love when love wasn't beating you until you had nothing left to give.

Getting up she turned on the news and prepared to fix herself some lunch and tea. Putting water on to boil, she slipped into the shower. This was her favorite past time, it was how she forgot the world. It was now how she was going to forget Ethan existed, even if for only a few brief moments.

_She also forgot that she had left her stove on._


End file.
